Conventionally, as an automatic ticket gate machine installed at a ticket gate of a station, an automatic ticket gate machine has been known which includes a bypass conveying passage and a reversing mechanism for reversing the front and back of a railway ticket which is inserted into an input port. (See, for example, Patent Literature 1). The automatic ticket gate machine described in Patent Literature 1 judges the front face and the back face of a railway ticket which is taken into through an input port. When the railway ticket is taken into the inside in a state that its front face faces upward, predetermined processing such as reading or writing of magnetic data is performed on the railway ticket as it is and, when the railway ticket is taken into in a state that its back face faces upward, the railway ticket is conveyed to the bypass conveying passage to reverse the state of the front face and the back face by the reversing mechanism and then, the railway ticket is returned to a normal conveying passage again and a predetermined processing is performed on the railway ticket.
In the automatic ticket gate machine described in Patent Literature 1, in a case that a railway ticket is taken into the inside in a state that its back face faces upward, the predetermined processing is performed after the state of the front face and the back face of the railway ticket is reversed and thus processing of the railway ticket in this case requires much time.
Therefore, conventionally, a magnetic recording medium reading/writing apparatus has been proposed which is capable of performing predetermined processing on a recording medium at a high speed regardless of a taking posture of a recording medium such as a railway ticket (see, for example, Patent Literature 2). A magnetic stripe of a recording medium which is used in the magnetic recording medium reading/writing apparatus described in Patent Literature 2 is displaced from the center of a recording medium in a widthwise direction of the recording medium which is perpendicular to a conveyance direction of the recording medium. Therefore, the magnetic recording medium reading/writing apparatus includes a first reading/writing unit which performs reading and writing of magnetic data when a recording medium is taken into the apparatus from one end side of the recording medium in a state that the front face of the recording medium faces upward, a second reading/writing unit which performs reading and writing of magnetic data when a recording medium is taken into the apparatus from the other end side of the recording medium in a state that the front face of the recording medium faces downward, a third reading/writing unit which performs reading and writing of magnetic data when a recording medium is taken into the apparatus from the other end side of the recording medium in a state that the front face of the recording medium faces upward, and a fourth reading/writing unit which performs reading and writing of magnetic data when a recording medium is taken into the apparatus from the one end side of the recording medium in a state that the front face of the recording medium faces downward.
In the magnetic recording medium reading/writing apparatus described in Patent Literature 2, the first through the fourth reading/writing units are disposed in order and in line along the conveying passage for a recording medium. Further, the magnetic head structuring the first reading/writing unit and the magnetic head structuring the third reading/writing unit are disposed so as to face the conveying passage from a lower side, and the magnetic head structuring the second reading/writing unit and the magnetic head structuring the fourth reading/writing unit are disposed so as to face the conveying passage from an upper side. Further, the magnetic head structuring the first reading/writing unit and the magnetic head structuring the second reading/writing unit are disposed at a position displaced to one side with respect to the center of the conveying passage in a widthwise direction of a recording medium, and the magnetic head structuring the third reading/writing unit and the magnetic head structuring the fourth reading/writing unit are disposed at a position displaced to the other side with respect to the center of the conveying passage in the widthwise direction of the recording medium. Further, a pad roller which is urged toward the magnetic head is oppositely disposed to each of the magnetic heads.
In the magnetic recording medium reading/writing apparatus described in Patent Literature 2, even when a recording medium is taken into the inside in any posture, predetermined processing can be performed without reversing the recording medium and thus the recording medium can be performed with predetermined processing at a high speed.
Another present invention relates to a medium processing apparatus provided with a reading function of magnetic data recorded on a card-shaped recording medium and a printing function on a recording medium, and relates to a control method for the medium processing apparatus.
The word “printing” in the present specification includes printing a figure, a sign and a pattern written on a recording medium in addition to printing characters written on a recording medium. Further, the word “print a character” in the present specification includes printing of a figure, a sign or a pattern on a recording medium in addition to printing of a character on a recording medium.
Conventionally, as an automatic ticket gate machine installed at a ticket gate of a station, an automatic ticket gate machine has been known which includes a magnetic processing part, which performs reading of magnetic data of a railway ticket and writing of magnetic data on a railway ticket put into from an input port, and a printing part for printing characters on a railway ticket. (See, for example, Patent Literature 3). In the automatic ticket gate machine described in Patent Literature 1, the printing part includes two thermal heads, i.e., a thermal head which is structured to contact with one face of a railway ticket and print characters by a thermal method, and a thermal head which is structured to contact with the other face of a railway ticket and print characters by a thermal method.